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Has the World Gone Mad?

How many men and women on this planet of seven billion are worthy of a prize for peace – the Nobel Prize?

How many tireless workers, whose praises are unsung and whose faces we never see on the media channels, have made a lasting contribution to real peace and harmony between peoples? Plenty! And they deserve a bit of public applause and recognition.

I think some kind of corporate insanity has struck this world. Windfarms twirling uselessly as we run out of power; students given a fail mark on any research that doesn’t support the green agenda; church bazaars not allowed to recycle jam jars – you just couldn’t make this stuff up! – and now the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the most profligate, corrupted, contentious body on earth!

It wasn’t the Common Market that brought peace to Europe in 1945. It wasn’t the EU that helped to keep the peace during the Cold War. Most people would agree that was the work of NATO, and the threat of retaliation against Soviet aggression.

It wasn’t the EU that went toe to toe with Russia over the stationing of Soviet missiles in Europe. It was Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It still isn’t the EU leaders that are solving the present Middle East unrest, and it certainly isn’t the EU that supports Israel in its attempts to defend itself from terrorism.

Rioting & Unrest

And look where the EU machine is taking us now. The catastrophic programme for monetary union is continuing to impoverish the people of Greece and much of southern Europe. When the German Chancellor paid a visit last week, to inspect the effects of the EU-imposed austerity measures, they had to protect Angela Merkel with 7,000 police – the largest such operation in history, and still there were protesters dressing up as Nazis.

In Spain, there are now thousands of young people fleeing for a better life in Latin America. The whole European economy is being held back by the fear that the euro will break up, when the ghastly truth is that a break-up is probably the best hope of salvation. The only solution on offer from these oh-so wise and peace-loving EU plutocrats is yet MORE political and economic integration – a solution that is apparently supported by the British government even though it is contrary to all democratic principles.

German Dominion Again

The reason the Greeks are turning out dressed as Nazis is that they feel as trampled on and as humiliated as they did when the swastika flew over the Parthenon during World War Two.

We are now proposing to give formal control of eurozone tax and spending policies to the EU institutions – a shorthand for German control. How well is that idea going to go down in nations already beset by harsh austerity measures and high unemployment? (Not that these nations will have any say in the decision.) Far from ending tensions between EU countries, the euro project is now massively increasing them.

According to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the Nobel prize is “for all of us”, in the sense that it is directed at all 500 million European citizens. Well, on behalf of millions of UK citizens bowed down under the oppressive EU regime, I blow a corporate raspberry at the lot of them. Save your accolades for those who genuinely deserve them.

NATO’s Role

John Redwood, Conservative MP for Wokingham argues the move to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is a “huge political misjudgement” which ignores the role of Nato.

The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for its long-term role in uniting the continent, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today. The decision by the five-member panel, led by Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjoern Jagland, was unanimous and seen as a morale boost for the bloc as it struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

The prize was a surprise, especially given the EU’s current woes and in some quarters has been greeted with outright scepticism. John Redwood MP said: “This is a huge political misjudgement to give it to the European Union, at a time when the euro scheme is doing so much to promote dissension within Europe. “Just look at the way the relationship between Greece and Germany has disintegrated massively in recent months. Primarily because of their joint membership of the single currency scheme.”

EU wins Nobel Peace Prize: Satire really is now obsolete

Like most people, I reacted to the news that the EU had won the Nobel Peace Prize with a shout of delighted mirth. In picking this moment – just as the euro brings national antagonisms to a new high – the committee members have revealed a sublime comic genius. It is 40 years since, hearing that the award had gone to Henry Kissinger, Tom Lehrer declared ‘satire is now obsolete’.

I’ve made the argument at length before. In brief, the EU is not a cause, but a symptom of a European peace born out of the defeat of fascism, the spread of democracy and the security of the Nato alliance. Its ruling dogma – the idea that nationalism causes war – is false. The most lethal wars in Europe’s history were caused, first by religious differences, then by ideological ones.

The nation-state has, over the years, proved itself a remarkably stable vessel for justice and democracy. A Europe of nations, each at ease within more or less ethnographic borders, will be more tranquil than a patchwork of misaligned frontiers, irredenti communities and discontented minorities.

Jamming peoples into a single state against their will is rarely conducive to either democracy or goodwill. It didn’t work for the Habsburgs, the Ottomans or the Soviets. Those polities survived only when they were police states. The moment their constituent peoples were free to choose, they opted for independence.

G.K. Chesterton pointed out that condemning patriotism because it has been cited as a cause of war is like condemning love because it has been cited as a cause of murder.

In fact, patriotism is what makes us recognise an obligation to the people around us; it’s what makes us behave unselfishly. Because we feel a community of identity with our fellow citizens, we obey laws which we think foolish, we accept election results when we voted for the losing party, we pay taxes for the welfare of strangers.

Such a community of identity exists within Germany or Greece. But within the EU?

Have a look at what the Germans are saying about Greeks and vice versa. Observe the unrest in Spain. Recall the way Brussels has toppled elected prime ministers in Italy and Greece.

And then listen to the way Eurocrats turn aside any criticism – of lack of democracy, financial inefficiency, corruption – by complacently insisting that peace in Europe justifies everything. Even if that claim were true, it would be self-serving. But, in this of all years, we can all see that it isn’t.